About this Book

Book Summary

In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda, just graduated from the police academy, join forces to search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree and soon find themselves forced to confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

In this latest atmospheric thriller, Kurt Wallander and his daughter Linda join forces to
search for a religious fanatic on a murder spree. Just graduated from the police
academy, Linda Wallander returns to Skane to join the police force, and she
already shows all the hallmarks of her father--the maverick approach, the
flaring temper. Before she even starts work she becomes embroiled in the case of
her childhood friend Anna, who has inexplicably disappeared. As the case her
father is working on dovetails with her own, something far more dangerous than
either could have imagined begins to emerge. They soon find themselves forced to
confront a group of extremists bent on punishing the world's sinners.

Translated by Ebba Segerberg.

Chapter 1

The wind picked up shortly after 9.00 on the evening of August 21, 2001.
In a valley to the south of the Rommele Hills, small waves were rippling
across the surface of Marebo Lake. The man waiting in the shadows beside
the water stretched out his hand to discover the direction of the wind.
Virtually due south, he found to his satisfaction. He had chosen the
right spot to put out food to attract the creatures he would soon be
sacrificing.

He sat on the rock where he had spread out a sweater against the chill.
It was a new moon and no light penetrated the thick layer of clouds.
Dark enough for catching eels. That's what my Swedish playmate used to
say when I was growing up. The eels start their migration in August.
That's when they bump into the fishermen's traps and wander the length
of the trap. And then the trap slams shut.
...

Please be aware that this discussion guide may contain spoilers!

About This Book
Fans of
Henning Mankell's Kurt Wallander series have two reasons to rejoice at
the appearance of his new novel, Before the Frost. Kurt Wallander
is back, as good as ever, and now he is joined by his daughter Linda,
who has just graduated from the police academy and is eager to begin her
careerand to prove herself to her father.

In one of Mankell's most compelling and suspenseful tales, Linda
Wallander finds herself drawn into a plot that threatens the lives of
two of her closest friends and, indeed, her own. Just a few days shy of
officially joining the Ystad police force, she is given a vivid and
...

BookBrowse Review

BookBrowse

Media Reviews

The New York Times - Marilyn Stasio

It's a good thing, though, that Mankell hasn't put Wallander entirely out to pasture, because his gravitas is sorely needed to lend credibility to the more bizarre elements of the story. ....Linda has a future in this series; but it takes a seasoned philosopher like Wallander to make sense of the horrors that men do to honor their gods.

Though Mankell's novels can be painfully slow, they're never without their virtues, and this case is redeemed by the electricity between a father and daughter too much alike.

Publishers Weekly

As always with Mankell, the mystery is connected to larger issues--the decline of Swedish civility, of course, but also the danger of religious fundamentalism (the events are set in the weeks before 9/11)--but polemics never trumps suspense in this extraordinarily compelling drama.

Booklist - Bill Ott

Starred Review. This is a fine thriller on its own, but Mankell's real triumph is to stay focused on Linda, a rookie cop whose expertise and worldview are entirely different from her father's, while at the same time revealing new and fascinating aspects of the curmudgeonly Kurt's character.

Michael Ondaatje
For me, Henning Mankell is by far the best writer of police mysteries today.

Beyond the Book

The Kurt Wallender series is set primarily in
Mankell's native Sweden. You'll find Sweden in the
north of Europe between Finland and Norway. With a population of about 9
million, a landmass about the same size as California and a stable
population, most people enjoy a good quality of life (albeit cold at some times
of the year). Sweden was a military power up until the 17th
century (and long before - think Vikings!), but has not
participated in any war for almost 200 years.
More about Sweden.

The apolcalyptic
plot that Wallander and his daughter uncover has its beginnings in the
1978 mass suicide of...

Winner of the Danish Crime Novel of the Decade, S.J. Gazan's debut novel The Dinosaur Feather is a classic of Scandinavian noir, from its richly imagined and deeply flawed characters to its scintillating exploration of one of the most fascinating aspects of contemporary dinosaur and avian research.

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